Author: Henry Pickering Bowditch

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2016-12-16

Total Pages: 1084

ISBN-13: 9781334632242

Excerpt from An American Text-Book on Physiology The collaboration of several teachers in the preparation of an elementary text-book of physiology is unusual, the almost invariable rule heretofore having been for a single author to write the entire book. It does not seem desirable to attempt a discussion of the relative merits and demerits of the two plans, since the method of collaboration is untried in the teaching of physi ology, and there is therefore no basis for a satisfactory comparison. It is a fact, however, that many teachers of physiology in this country have not been altogether satisfied with the text-books at their disposal. Some of the more successful older books have not kept pace with the rapid changes in modern physiology, while few, if any, of the newer books have been uniformly satis factory in their treatment of all parts of this many-sided science. Indeed, the literature of experimental physiology is so great that it would seem to be almost impossible for any one teacher to keep thoroughly informed on all topics. This fact undoubtedly accounts for some of the defects of our present text-books, and it is hoped that one of the advantages derived from the col laboration method is that, owing to the less voluminous literature to be consulted, each author has been enabled to base his elementary account upon a comprehensive knowledge of the part of the subject assigned to him. Those who are acquainted with the difficulty of making a satisfactory elementary presentation of the complex-and oftentimes unsettled questions of physiology must agree that authoritative statements and generalizations, such as are fre quently necessary in text-books if they are to leave any impression at all upon the student, are usually trustworthy in proportion to the fulness of informa tion possessed by the writer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.